Offensive rookie of the year: Kyler Murray

Posted by Josh Alper on January 1, 2020, 9:00 AM EST

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Heading into 2019, the questions surrounding Kyler Murray included whether he would play football or baseball on the professional level.

Murray said he was committed to football, which shifted the main question marks about him to his height and whether he was big enough to stand up to the rigors of playing quarterback in the NFL. The Cardinals weren’t put off by those concerns and made Murray the first overall pick in the draft.

The decision worked out well for them.

Murray threw for 3,722 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing 64.4 percent of his passes and making all 16 starts during his rookie season. Murray also ran for 544 yards and four touchdowns to become the second rookie to throw for at least 3,500 yards while running for at least 500 yards. Many of those yards came on designed runs as Murray showed a willingness to stay in the pocket that was also among the questions about him heading into the season.

Murray will need to throw downfield more in the years to come as he ranks near the bottom of the league in air yards per attempt in an offense that prized short throws, but he answered many of the questions that accompanied him from Oklahoma to the NFL.

All in all, Murray’s production in Arizona has led PFT to name him our offensive rookie of the year for 2019.

Murray was not the only strong contender for the prize. Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown finished second in the league in yards per catch and gained 778 receiving yards and scored six touchdowns once the team moved to Ryan Tannehill at quarterback after a 2-4 start to the year.

Raiders running back Josh Jacobs missed three of the final four games of the year with a shoulder injury, but still ran for 1,150 yards and seven touchdowns in his first NFL season. Eagles running back Miles Sanders came on strong at the end of the year to help his team win the NFC East and picked up over 1,300 yards from scrimmage.

All are worthy of great praise for their efforts this season, but Murray is our choice for the top offensive rookie.

Mild surprise. Mr. Universe (DK Metcalf) is not even mentioned as a contender. But then he was targeted 100 times and he only caught 58 passes for 900 yards. In contrast, Frisco’s Deebo Samuel was targeted 81 times and he had 57 receptions for 802 yards. If Samuel had been targeted more often, he would probably surpass 1,000 yards receiving, and he may be contender for rookie of the year.

Kyler Murray definitely deserves it. Stop with the Josh Jacobs whining. He doesn’t deserve it. All of the hype in the pre season about how he was going to contribute a lot in the passing game and even throw passes was bologna. I didn’t see any of that. I just saw an average, injury prone back who ran behind a pretty good run blocking offensive line and who was constantly coming out of the game on 3rd down.

Yeah I can’t say as I would have picked this kid for this “award”. Lots of other guys with numbers I would say are comparable or better. Murray looks good, and looks like they have found something, this seems more like name recognition.

Question: Would Murray still be your choice if he didn’t have the built-in hype of being drafted #1 overall?

Murray had a decent enough season for a rookie and had his share of highlight-reel plays….but that’s all that can really be said. He didn’t spark any dramatic improvement in the team and didn’t do particularly well in any one area. He was okay “for a rookie”. Compared to other QB’s….he wasn’t great.

Guys like AJ Brown and Josh Jacobs performed with the best players at their respective position, period. (Not just rookies.) Jacobs was in competition for the league rushing crown until he was injured. AJ Brown ranks among the league’s best in receiving TD’s *and* yards-per-catch; he also generated 10 explosive plays of 40+ yards…more than any rookie WR since Randy Moss.

I’d prefer to see the reward go to a player who had a great season PERIOD….not just someone who was “pretty good for a rookie”.

I already posted on this- but in Murray’s defence, he did start all 16 games, which in the NFL is a skill. The Minshew argument of would have had better if he started is a little thin in my eyes, as staying healthy is huge. That being said, still would have picked Minshew or Jacobs over this kid.

I think Minshew gets ignored because he plays in Jacksonville and he’s a 6th round pick, but he had a just as good if not better season than Murray. Minshew had more TDs, fewer INTs, a higher QB rating, and let his team to more wins. But the one thing Minshew did not have as much as Murray was hype. First pick in the draft vs 178th pick in the draft. I’m sure if Minshew had been the 1st overall draft pick, he would have won the award.

orangecrush78 says:
January 1, 2020 at 12:02 pm
I already posted on this- but in Murray’s defence, he did start all 16 games, which in the NFL is a skill. The Minshew argument of would have had better if he started is a little thin in my eyes, as staying healthy is huge. That being said, still would have picked Minshew or Jacobs over this kid.
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Minshew was healthy. The Jags put Foles back in when Foles’ collarbone healed up because they had $88 million invested in Foles. Those are the 3 lost games in midseason when Minshew didn’t play.

Murray actually looked better than most people expected. Other than an aging HOFer Fitz (who STILL led this bad team in receptions and yards), Murray had nobody to throw to as their previously great receiver out of the backfield David Johnson disappeared for almost all of the year. Steve Keims GREAT draft picks of receivers (to help Murray) Andy Isabella, Hakeem Butler, and KeeSean Johnson COMBINED for 30 receptions in 2019.

Oh for a second I thought this was the NFL award. Bottom line can’t overlook what Josh Jacob really did player injured since week 7. Also Raiders DE Maxx Crosby is in the mix for Defensive rookie player of the year as well. Its easy to give the award to guys who went #1 over all or top picks in the draft, but have to love the value from later picks.

Having watched Murray carefully this year, he is the real deal, something that will be clear soon. He definitely deserves the award, although Jacobs and Minshew were also excellent. Jones was promising but not in the same category as Murray, Jacobs, or Minshew — though he has great potential, my comment only applies to comparisons in the first year. Murray wins it as Minshew had a couple of bad games, plus missed some games, where Murray had only one bad game and missed none; and Jacobs was out too many games, plus the fact that quarterbacks play the most demanding position in the sport. The comments here show fan bias, and I’d bet that most of these fans didn’t watch a significant number of Murray’s games.

While Murray played well, PFT is mostly buying into the hype. Josh Jacobs carried the Oakland offense most of the year and was probably one of the top five backs in the league overall, not just rookies. Can you say the same about Murray at his position? Jacobs is the offensive rookie of the year.

Regardless if you think he should have won it or not he played pretty well–well enough to be in the conversation. Remember when the pre-season began and everyone was saying he’s going to be a bust. How’s that working out. It just shows you never know what the person can do.

We all knew you’d pick him even before he got drafted. No surprise. Murray had an acceptable performance, but he didn’t have the groundbreaking year that you’ve been trying to sell. McLaurin and A.J. Brown had good but not all time great years, but Josh Jacobs had a truly outstanding season. He deserves the award, not Kyler Murray.

Question: Would Murray still be your choice if he didn’t have the built-in hype of being drafted #1 overall?

Absolutely. Minshew has 7 games where his team scored 13 or less. He had a top tier defense on his side. Meanwhile, Kyler had three games where his team scored 13 or less. His defense was a tire fire, last in the league.

Wins are a garbage stat to tie to a player’s success in a team sport with 22 different starters.

Murray wouldn’t even be in the discussion if he wasn’t picked #1 overall and overhyped coming out of college. He stats are mediocre. Only notable stat is total yards (for being a rookie) but he was also top 10 at pass attempts. And he’s also top 5-10 in every negative QB stat category. Otherwise any Murray hovers around the middle of the pack for any other valuable QB stat.

ImpeachtheDotardforHighCrimes says:
January 2, 2020 at 1:13 am
Question: Would Murray still be your choice if he didn’t have the built-in hype of being drafted #1 overall?

Absolutely. Minshew has 7 games where his team scored 13 or less. He had a top tier defense on his side.

LMAO. Jags a top tier defense? Man, you’re living in 2017. There defense gave up historically bad numbers.. losing a string of games by more then 17pts and giving up over 200yards on the ground in multiple games. Stop it!